19) First Quest (II)

After taking the quest announcements to the desk, a few notifications appeared on his vision.

[Congratulations on taking your first quest! Gold will be doubled for the first quest]

["Adventurer" has been registered as your first profession]

[Quest #2018 has been registered in your quest log and map]

[Quest #3150 has been registered in your quest log and map]

[Quest #4203 has been registered in your quest log and map]

Unfortunately for him, the first quest he registered was the swallowtail one. So his double gold was essentially wasted. He then tried to open the quest log as he opened the inventory and the bestiary. There were details of the quests such as a bit of story behind the quest and who had given out the quest. On the map, there were some highlighted locations which he assumed were the locations where he needed to go to carry out the quests.

The only location to which he could currently go was an alchemist shop where the request for the swallowtail wings had come from. Even though the other two locations were also registered on the map, they were grayed out and had a timer on them, which made sense as they seemed to be part of some type of event. He sometimes forgot this was all a video game so things like time-limited events were a common sighting.

'I wonder what type of affinity does an alchemist has to have? Can it be anything? Can I become an alchemist?'

As he walked to the shop in the center of town, he let his mind wander. He tended to occupy himself with the things around him as he sometimes was afraid of his own thought, but I mean, who isn't? Wait no, I don't mean anything. There is no "I" in narrator. Scratch that, let's go back to where we were.

His thoughts led him down memory lane when he played video games with his teammates. When he was known as "The King" and his crew as "The Royal Assasins". He was starting to see how none of them betrayed him. How he was the one who forced their hand and left them no choice but to leave. He didn't know how to explain this feeling of guilt and self-pity. He had never felt remorse before. He had a mindset of "what is done is done" and for the first time, he stepped in the "what if" quicksand. The more you move and the more you think about it, the faster it swallows you until you are suffocating in your own thoughts. He hated this feeling but one cannot choose their addictions.

Before he realized he was outside of "Pharmagician", the brewery store he was supposed to go to. It was a two-story building made of mossy stone. It had two large windows to the side of the door which extended throughout the two floors. Displayed on these windows were all types of plants, some crystal beakers filled with glowing liquid, vails with small pills, there were also what looked like bars of soap and some small tins you would expect in a body shop with a hummus-like substance inside.

The name of the shop was carved in the stone and was glowing red, it gave it a malicious look, but after speaking with Holden who conjured up demons, a little evil shop would not scare Ryker.

*Ring ring*

When he opened the door it hit a little bell which signified a customer had walked in.

'So much for a magical world, they have a bell at the door.' -he thought as he rolled his eyes.

He scanned his surroundings. There was a table with a cauldron in the middle of the room, from time to time laughter could be heard coming from it. On the walls, there were jars filled with random ingredients. Some had dried up leaves, others had slime, there were even eyes in some of the jars. The counter was positioned directly opposite of the door and to the left, there was a spiral staircase that connected to the second floor.

"I will be there in a sssecond!" -shouted a female mature voice from somewhere inside the building.

After a minute or so, a middle-aged woman dressed in a beautiful golden robe descended from the stairs. What caught Ryker's attention was that the woman, who had a slim figure with defined curves had the head of a snake. She had the hood of a cobra, a long face, vertically slit yellow eyes and her skin was covered with green scales.

"Hello dear, isss there ssssomething I can help you with?" -despite her frightening appearance, her voice was smooth and soothing, like a siren's.

"Hello madam, I am here for the quest regarding the swallowtail wings"

"Ohh yessss yessss, I jussst posssted it ssso I thought it would take longer for sssomeone to complete it"

"I just happened to have a few wings on me when I saw the quest"

"That'sssss great! How many pairssss do you bring dear?"

"I have 29 pairs madam"

"Sssssso many! Becaussse of how fassst you anssswered my call I will double your gold coinssss. It would be 30 for the 15 compulsssory pairssss and 4 coinssss per extra so 56. You are an angel dear."

She then walked behind the counter, pulled open a drawer, and took a scroll out. Her index fingernail then suddenly grew larger and larger until it was about 10cm. With it, she started writing on the scroll, and the words burned into the scroll. When Ryker saw this he audibly gasped. It was not fire magic, He realized the scroll was made of leather and she was using acid to burn the words in it. She had poison magic! Really? We all saw that coming. Anyways.

She then handed the scroll to Ryker and told him to go to the adventurer's guild to retrieve his gold coins.

"Thank you so much madam, I have a question, do you need to have a poison affinity to be an alchemist?"

"Hahaha you are very perceptive dear. Although it isss not a requirement, you will find mosssst alchemissstssss do have the poissson affinity asss it not only dealsss with poisssons but also all type of potions. It sssshould be more like potion affinity hahaha"

"Thank you so much madam. I will take my leave now."

"Whenever you need potionssss come here dear. I will be waiting for you"